My First "you Want It When?!" Story....

A lady called Monday morning and talked to my husband, since I was still in bed (it wasn't even 8:00 yet -- who does that?!). I was awake enough to hear that she wanted a wedding cake for THAT EVENING.

Apparently I'm crazy, because as I drifted back to sleep, I started to think maybe it would be fun. I thought I could do a small two-tier (small enough to fit all the pans in the oven at once), it could be good experience. Fortunately, reality set in, and I realized that:

a) since we had just gotten home from vacation and the fridge was empty, I couldn't even start baking until I went grocery shopping, b) we already had a TON to do that day, and c) I have a four-week-old baby, so everything takes four times as long as it normally would.

The woman asked my husband to have me call her back by 10:00, but I guess she got antsy, because she called back at 9:15. I was still in bed (give me a break, I have a newborn, remember? ), but took the call anyway. She had attended a baby shower I threw a couple of months ago, and loved the cake I served. I had already decided not to do the wedding cake, but the clincher came when she said she wanted something like I did at the shower, but a little bigger. The shower cake was three tiers, fondant, with gumpaste flowers. Uh, yeah, I'll just pull one of those out my left nostril.

It's a good thing I turned her down. I didn't even get breakfast on until 11:00....

could be a "gunshot wedding" I had one of those, though she gave me two days, she called me Wednesday afternoon, I was in Vegas at the time, and the cake was for Friday. I was flying home that evening, so I would be able to do it,but I did tell her it's going to COST YOU... A LOT. But one day, well not really one day one afternoon, I don't think so lady!!!!

I honestly dont' know whether to laugh because they dont' know .... or feel sorry for them because they don't know. The perils of living in an instant, everything right now, 24/7 world!

I had a guy call me at 11:00 a.m. and wanted a cake carved to look like his favorite car (Jag, BMW, can't recall) .... for a dinner party he was throwing at 5:00 that afternoon!!!

I laughed out loud. Seriously. Right on the phone. And said, and I quote:

"Dude! Do you know how many DAYS it takes to make one of those???"

Well, obviously not. I hesitantly suggested another large bakery in town (who had recently ticked me off so I wanted them to have the pleasure of dealing with this guy!) and suggested that maybe they MIGHT, with their bigger staff, be able to pull this off. He replied, in a very forlorn voice, that he'd already called them and they told him they needed more notice.

DUH!!!!

(Hey wait a minute! you dont' think they told him to call me for the same reason, do ya? Hmmmmm! )

Wow, that's hilarious! It seems like everybody is waiting last minute these days. In the past 2 weeks I have received 3 orders due in less than a week from the order date. These are not orders for small cakes either. 2-3 tier cakes with massive amounts of fondant work.....one is even a wedding cake. I'm just a one man band that has a 2 1/2 year old that also works a full time job outside of the home. These people are killing me right now!

I just had the same thing myself--although, admittedly, not as urgent as one day. Someone contacted me on Monday of last week about a caroussel themed cake for this Saturday 7/31. I replied back to her email that "Sure, I can do something for you..." and then a list of all the normal questions. What size group are you serving, time, place of party, budget--all the normals. I heard nothing back until this past Tuesday! Her email back to me was "The party is Saturday at 3pm. I usually get my cakes from BJ's, so I'm not sure what to expect for something like this. Can you give me an idea?". Only because it was a friend's sister, I decided I would still try and squeeze her in but with the stipulations that I had to have all the answers by the next day at 10am. I quoted one cake--take it or leave it. At that point, I wasn't going to rush to do a small cake that was not going to be worth me pulling an all nighter Friday night to get done. Of course, I didn't hear from her by the deadline but heard from her today. "Sorry, but right now that is just out of our price range. I'll contact you for the kids parties". I wonder if she'll contact me the week of for those as well?

I have noticed lately to that wedding cake orders are coming in closer and closer to the day. I have booked several in the last couple months that have been cutting it close. Lots of 2 and 3 week out weddings. They act shocked when the tell you their date and you reply "this year?" LOL!

Lots of short engagements and even more procrastinators! I did one with a 1 1/2 week notice, the wedding was one of those rushes so they could marry before her pregnancy kept her from wearing her wedding dress. But it worked out, since I do very few cakes and had nothing else planned for that week.

I actually did 2 tastings last week for weddings in September, but I also did one for an August wedding. I had one girl call last week, getting married in October and wanted to know if it was too early. I told her absolutely not since October was already getting pretty booked with weddings already.

I recently did a small wedding cake for my VERY GOOD friends step-son. They literally decided to get married in 24 hours, and I didn't even get the message until the morning of the wedding. My friend was like, "I'll pay you whatever you want for this cake...this is crazy last minute, but I really want to get the cake from you...whatever design you can pull off is fine...colors don't even matter..."

Honestly, I really looked forward to the challenge lol . But I would NEVER do this for someone I wasn't reeeeaaally good friends with. So, in under 7 hours, I did a 2 tier (10/7) square, used my diamond impression mat, applied silver dragees, and a cascade of red RI petunias. I'd been practicing the petunias using Edna's Youtube tutorial, so I had dozens of them on hand. Guess what??? The bride had chosen red/silver/white as her colors, and I didn't even know it haha!

So, it turned out great, the bride loved the cake, and I proved to myself that I could do a small wedding cake in under 7 hours lol !

I work at a grocery store where the notice for cake orders is only 24 hours. But considering we just pull cake out of the freezer and ice it with frosting already made and colored, not a big deal.

But sometimes, we do have to cut off orders for the next day if it's super busy. A lady called just this last Friday wanting a cake order for Saturday. My manager explained that due to the volume of orders we had to stop taking orders for Saturday and said the soonest we could get a cake done would be Sunday. She was fine with that, so she said she would be in to place the order (didn't want to do it over the phone).

She shows up and places the order with my manager. SHE'S ORDERING 12 CAKES!!!! My boss is like, next time please mention that it's more than one cake because now I'm not sure if we'll be able to add another 12 cakes to Sunday's orders. So they discuss and she asks what time we open on Sunday, which is 10. She says, "oh that's not going to work then, this will have to be for Saturday."

Boss took the order on the condition that she shows up to get the cakes no earlier than 8 PM Saturday for the cakes. Me and the other full time decorator that was working that Saturday left that one order for the part time decorator that was coming in that evening. Haven't heard how it went yet. . .

I have noticed lately to that wedding cake orders are coming in closer and closer to the day. I have booked several in the last couple months that have been cutting it close. Lots of 2 and 3 week out weddings. They act shocked when the tell you their date and you reply "this year?" LOL!

Maybe these brides have read the lastest bridal magazine where one wedding planner suggested (advised) that brides should order a couple of weeks or one week before the wedding date so they make sure they get a "FRESH" cake.

Something similar happened to me last week. Did a naughty cake and 2 specialty desserts for someone last month and a lady at the party told me she was getting married this month and she MIGHT want me to do the desserts for her to have. I gave her my card and told her to let me know a few weeks ahead so I can quote price, etc. Well guess what? She had the FRIEND call me on last Thursday to request the price for the desserts and her wedding was Saturday! Well, of course I gave her the price (the messenger) and was told she needed to consult with her fiance and let me know. Do you think I heard back from her? Nope. And they even wanted me to DELIVER it to them! The nerve! I was busy that Saturday but I would've tried to squeeze them in for the price if possible. What they don't realize is that I use a bakery's kitchen to do these things and I needed to give them notice that I would be using it ahead of time! The nerve of people. And to think the messenger wants me to do her cake for her wedding in Oct. Now mind you she was supposed to be married on 7/17 but the whole thing got screwed up so she had to find a new caterer, cake baker, etc. She sent me a few fuzzy pics of what she wanted. Hers is a 3 tier cake with sugar flowers and his is a 4 Patron bottles. My best friend who knows her already told me she's probably got a budget of $100 for cake. Well it'll be a cold day before she gets that kinda slave labor from me. She even told me how much the venue is costing her so I know they have money to spend. It's just not worth it sometimes!

I have noticed lately to that wedding cake orders are coming in closer and closer to the day. I have booked several in the last couple months that have been cutting it close. Lots of 2 and 3 week out weddings. They act shocked when the tell you their date and you reply "this year?" LOL!

Maybe these brides have read the lastest bridal magazine where one wedding planner suggested (advised) that brides should order a couple of weeks or one week before the wedding date so they make sure they get a "FRESH" cake.

I think they need to stop watching these shows where it looks like the cake was done in 30 minutes! Hello! It's an edited show! Cake Boss and Duff don't do 30 minute cakes!

I recently had the same thing happen, but for a birthday cake. (I don't usually have people order late for wedding cakes, but they definitely do for birthday cakes!) When I told her I didn't have enough time to do it, she said, "Well, on the cake competition shows on TV, they do those huge cakes in 8 hours!" I replied, "Yes, and the winner gets $10,000. So if you want to pay me $10,000, I'll see what I can do for you!"

I recently had the same thing happen, but for a birthday cake. (I don't usually have people order late for wedding cakes, but they definitely do for birthday cakes!) When I told her I didn't have enough time to do it, she said, "Well, on the cake competition shows on TV, they do those huge cakes in 8 hours!" I replied, "Yes, and the winner gets $10,000. So if you want to pay me $10,000, I'll see what I can do for you!"

I recently had the same thing happen, but for a birthday cake. (I don't usually have people order late for wedding cakes, but they definitely do for birthday cakes!) When I told her I didn't have enough time to do it, she said, "Well, on the cake competition shows on TV, they do those huge cakes in 8 hours!" I replied, "Yes, and the winner gets $10,000. So if you want to pay me $10,000, I'll see what I can do for you!"

I recently had the same thing happen, but for a birthday cake. (I don't usually have people order late for wedding cakes, but they definitely do for birthday cakes!) When I told her I didn't have enough time to do it, she said, "Well, on the cake competition shows on TV, they do those huge cakes in 8 hours!" I replied, "Yes, and the winner gets $10,000. So if you want to pay me $10,000, I'll see what I can do for you!"

Hi, all! I do have to give the lady a break -- apparently her son only gave her three days notice that he was getting married on Monday! She was planning on just getting a sheetcake from Costco but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask me. At least she was nice about it. (Though it would make a better story if she was a jerk!)

I recently had the same thing happen, but for a birthday cake. (I don't usually have people order late for wedding cakes, but they definitely do for birthday cakes!) When I told her I didn't have enough time to do it, she said, "Well, on the cake competition shows on TV, they do those huge cakes in 8 hours!" I replied, "Yes, and the winner gets $10,000. So if you want to pay me $10,000, I'll see what I can do for you!"

ahh.. gotta love it, do these people think that the cakes and all of their supplies just magically appear with the snap of a finger? I mean it doesn't take time to bake all those cakes right? The cake fairy delivers them!